


Strange Fire

by VioletThePorama



Category: Villainous (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Can be read however you'd like, Gen, Graphic Violence, Hopefully some fluff, No description of said violence, No specific relationship, Self-Indulgent, Sickfic, Violence, more or less
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:42:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23623336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VioletThePorama/pseuds/VioletThePorama
Summary: What exactly it was about the demon that kept him in the business, the scientist would never be able to answer. But somehow, no job in the world seemed as satisfying as spending his life working with an eldritch horror, a crazed experiment, and an oddly docile bear.A.k.a. Dr. Flug notices that there is more to his boss than what meets the eye.
Relationships: Black Hat & Demencia & Dr. Flug (Villainous), Black Hat & Demencia (Villainous), Black Hat & Dr. Flug (Villainous), Demencia & Dr. Flug (Villainous)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 34





	1. The Convention Center

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [In Sickness and in Health](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11721429) by [PaperhatsAndEvilSchemes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaperhatsAndEvilSchemes/pseuds/PaperhatsAndEvilSchemes). 



The Villain Convention was as crowded as usual. It was a busy place for the production and purchasing of weapons, and even had programs meant to hire out new employees and grunts. It was one of the bigger expo’s of the year, with any other gatherings being smaller groups trying to sell to the most desperate of buyers. Any smart company would become a tycoon rather than stoop to that level, but no matter how inefficient they were, there was always some sort of clientele, seeing as evil never rested and there was always something nefarious in the works. 

The date, location, and even country that the Convention took place changed every year, and even every few months, but it always managed to wrack up quite the attendance, visitors ranging from the most notorious names in the business to juvenile grunts or evil masterminds just starting out. 

It was hardly the first time that Flug had gone to the expo, and it wasn’t even the first time it had been attacked. There always seemed to be something - a villain who had changed sides just before the Convention was scheduled, or a rogue hero who followed their nemesis to the location, but never before had such a large, organized group of heroes found the location. 

But that didn’t happen right away, of course. The day had started out with Flug losing Demencia immediately upon entering the building. Black Hat had split off just moments later, either to converse with the head of another company, or to follow Demencia’s example in causing convention-wide mayhem. Flug of course surveyed each device being sold by an opposing company, ensuring that his own inventions were superior to them, and taking notes on any ideas gleaned from the machines. 

He was nearing the end of a row in the  _ Merchant of Death _ hall when the attack began. The sudden yelling was the first thing he noticed, and he shook his head disapprovingly as he watched some grunts dart for the exits. The doctor only began to become concerned with the ruckus when he spotted a brightly colored hero that he had once seen on a newspaper. 

Flug ducked behind a vacated station long enough to check his phone for any updates on the expo, but nothing was posted yet. There was a clatter of a nearby device hitting the ground, and Flug jumped up and ran off in response, not wanting to stick around to see what happened when the machines were damaged or set off. 

The doctor kept away from any clashing foes and took a moment to curse the other villains for not having a quick enough response team to update the status of the Villain Convention. He was only shaken out of his thoughts when he found, or rather,  _ was found _ by Black Hat.

“S-sir,” Flug greeted. Black Hat didn’t respond, turning and starting in another direction immediately upon making eye contact with Flug. 

They went down a hallway that branched off into another two. Black Hat stopped briefly, an impossibly wide grin overtaking his face as he turned and caught a charging hero by the leg. 

Flug stepped out of the way of a stray laser beam and cleared his throat.

“Yes, doctor?” Black Hat asked, turning to him with a manic grin.

“We should really find Demencia…”

“Right,” Black Hat rolled his visible eye and tossed the hero through a window before continuing down one of the hallways. Flug followed, and sure enough, the telltale sound of Demecia ‘s hissing and laughter echoed down the path. 

She finally became visible, just behind another curve in the hall, and Flug stepped closer to the wall as Black Hat vanquished whoever Demencia had been toying with. 

“Guys!” She yelled, slithering over to join them. “You’ll never believe what happened!”

“We  _ know _ what happened, Demencia,” Flug sighed, smoothing out his paper bag. He chanced a glance at Black Hat, who faced a wall thoughtfully. “So-somebody leaked the location of the convention.”

“Sure,” Demencia crooned. “But do you know  _ who _ ?”

Black Hat’s head turned around with a dark smile while the rest of his body stayed poised, facing the wall. Flug shuddered before the implication hit him. “No, but- wait do  _ you _ know?”

Demencia opened her mouth to answer, but Black Hat cut her off. “Perhaps tell who it was when a hero isn’t spying on us.”

Flug gave an alarmed yelp, backpedaling as one of Black Hat’s tentacles emerged and slammed into the wall, breaking through the plaster. It pulled back, wrapped around a hero. 

The eldritch made to toss the hero, but even Demencia paused in her twittering at the sound of a laser powering up behind them.

Flug whipped around to see another superhero hefting a clunky looking machine. He took a moment to admire how intricate it was, despite the cluttered appearance, before the girl began talking. 

“Black Hat” She said, taking aim. Another hero flew over who Flug recognized as The Fly flew over and stood by her side defensively. “We thought we might run into you here.”

“Yes, I suppose you did,” Black Hat looked annoyed, and he tossed the hero in his grasp from tendril to tendril. The two new supers winced at the treatment. 

The girl swallowed, jerking her laser to the side as Demencia moved, lowering herself to the ground and bolting for the wall. Just as the lizard girl reached it, the superhero shot at her, aiming just a little in front of where Demencia was moving. 

Black Hat shot out a tendril, blocking the path of the laser. It would have only skimmed Demencia, as she had skidded to a halt, but from the looks of the burn sizzling into the tentacle, it would have taken her weeks to heal, if not months. 

Flug tuned out the back and forth to examine what exactly the laser did. Unlike most projectiles fired at Black Hat, this one  _ seared _ his extended tentacle, and it withdrew to be replaced with another. The doctor would have thought nothing of it, if Black Hat hadn’t proceeded to avoid the next beam that the superhero fired. 

Most of the time, when Black Hat took quite a bit of damage, he healed near instantaneously. Flug had always figured it was some sort of intimidation technique, to show heros that he couldn’t be stopped or even  _ touched _ by their weapons. The sight of his boss trying to avoid the weapon, and the dark skin sizzling and not healing set Flug on edge. 

It seemed that the heroes had noticed as well, a smirk taking over the girls face as she fired with increasing accuracy, burning and scorching the walls and floor of the building. As Black Hat seemed to get even more annoyed, and threw several tentacles forward, The Fly dodged the tendrils with practiced ease and knocked into Black Hat, unbalancing him. 

While the eldritch was distracted, the girl hit the tentacle still holding the hero who had been hiding in the wall, and when Black Hat dropped him, rather than taking off, the hero stumbled and then turned to go after Flug. 

The doctor recoiled and stumbled back against the wall, reaching into his coat and fumbling around for the right weapon. Just as his fingers wrapped around the handle, the hero landed a hit on him, and Flug tumbled back, falling onto the ground. As the hero lumbered towards him again, acting like he was going to pin Flug down, the doctor whipped out the gun and shot him, disintegrating him immediately. 

Flug spent the next moment frantically making sure his bag wasn’t askew before he turned his attention back to the action between Black Hat and the heroes. While he would have been eviscerated if he had mentioned it aloud, he wanted to make sure that his boss was still intact. 

Once he had ensured that, he glanced around for Demencia, finding her on the wall mauling some hero who had wandered in and was somehow sticking to the wall by his feet. 

The doctor readjusted his grip on the gun and shakily turned it onto the girl with the laser. He tried to steady himself enough to aim at somebody who wasn’t point-blank, but he ended up jerking his arm and throwing off his aim anyway when The Fly called out a warning. 

The girl turned, face screwed up in anger as she took in the sight of the vaporized section of floor. “The  _ doctor _ ?!? Ugh!”

Flug had only a moment to panic when she whipped around and shot straight at him. He felt the searing heat grow closer, and squeezed his eyes shut as he braced himself. Only for… nothing to happen. 

He cracked an eye open, trying to figure out if he was in shock or something, but came face to face with the back of Blachat’s coat. His boss stood before him, skin rippling. Suddenly, the air felt tense and heavy with anger and the crackling of something otherworldly. Black Hat stepped forward, voice, and probably expression, promising untold pain. 

“ **That was** **_very_ ** **unwise of you** .”

The hero that Demencia was battling was finished off with only a gasp escaping him before he fell off the wall and crumpled to the ground. 

The Fly charged at Black Hat again, who caught in him a scorched tendril. Flug glanced at Demencia as she slithered over to his side, looking surprisingly subdued. 

Flug only turned back to witness the heroine's death. She yelled curses and desperately attempted to shoot Black Hat again before she was pulled to pieces. 

To the doctor’s surprise, it didn’t stop there. Black Hat dropped the limps and turned his attention to completely destroying the laser, pounding it into the ground and slamming it against walls before he dropped it to the ground. When it was finally nothing more than a hunk of scrap, he walked over to it and picked a fallen something out of the pile, slipping it into his pocket while the rest of the weapon vanished into a dimensional rift. 

Finally, Black Hat turned to them and began to speak. He paused when a stray axe flew into his side, launched from another fight down the hall. The eldritch yanked it out, sending the thick, inky substance that acted as his blood splattering onto the ground. 

Glancing around, Flug spotted several other droplets of it already melting through the floor. 

  
“ **I do believe it’s time for us to take our leave** ,” Black Hat announced, and broke through the nearest wall to the outside world. 


	2. Difficult

Hours after the convention, Black Hat and co. finally arrived back at the manor. The eldritch strolled into the large, ornate foyer first, with his employees not far behind. He had several tentacles extended, with two of them hovering at the shoulders of Flug and Demencia. 

Flug theorized about their usage, and had eventually settled on the idea that they were to harm whatever came near the two of them, though he would never bring it up or mention it to his boss. 

505 peered into the room with a questioning ‘ _ Rawr _ …?’, and Black Hat scowled, finally lowering his appendages for the first time since they’d left the convention. 

Demencia, who had been surprisingly subdued on the way back to the manor, stepped back and gave Black Hat a look that Flug had never seen on her face before- something tinged with worry. 

Flug turned his attention to his boss as well. Black Hat’s coat and dress shirt had been torn and bloodied with some sort of thick, inky substance. He desperately wanted to study it, and wished that he had been in the right mind to collect samples earlier, but he had other priorities to attend to first. Like how stiffly the demon stood, scowling at nothing. 

“Jefe…?” He tried, and Black Hat turned his head, keeping the rest of his body stiffly upright. 

“ **What** ?” The eldritch horror growled in question, and Flug drew back at the tone. 

“Are you alright?!?” Demencia asked before Flug could formulate some stuttered excuse of an answer. She practically leapt at their boss, and Flug winced, expecting her to be thrown off. But rather than enacting any violence, Black Hat stumbled back.

The doctor quickly pulled Demencia back, and watched as the demon shook with some combination of fury and overexertion. The lizard girl followed him without too much struggling, which would have worried Flug had he not been watching his boss so closely. 

Flug patted Demencia’s shoulder and stepped towards Black Hat. The demon stared at him for a moment, before rasping an unintelligible order and  _ fleeing _ , stumbling once he crossed into a nearby shadow, and catching himself as he melded into the wall and vanished. 

The scientist could have stood there for hours, trying to figure out what that meant, if he wasn’t interrupted by 505 moving between him and Demencia to wipe up the ichor and dust. 

“We have to go find him,” Demencia declared, and Flug found himself agreeing with her. 

The two employees split up to explore the house, traveling down to the little used basement once they ensured that Black Hat’s office was empty. 

Eventually, Flug managed to find a trail of scuff marks down one hall, and after a long series of long turns and dead ends, he came across the faint noise of growling from behind a door. 

Slowly, he approached and knocked at the door. 

“Black Hat?” Flug called, and the noises ceased. He quickly moved to try the knob, and fumbled with a lock pick upon finding it firmly closed. A minute or two later, he was able to open the door. The scientist squeezed his eyes closed as he opened the door, bracing himself for the worst. But nothing happened. For a moment, even after he opened his eyes and glanced around the room, he was sure that he had been mistaken about the noises.

Then he spotted his boss, who sat scowling in a darkened corner of the room, so the light from the hall barely touched him. 

“Jefecito?” Flug said. 

“Go back upstairs, Doctor,” Black Hat hissed disdainfully, and quite obviously made to ignore the intruder. 

He shot Demencia a message that he had found something. Then he stepped inside, all too aware of the fact that Black Hat’s gaze had fixed itself back upon him. 

“Disobeying orders, Flug?” 

“No sir,” the doctor responded, and stepped closer so that he could get a better look at the demon. Flug had installed night vision into his goggles a while back, when he had realized that everybody else in the house had advanced senses. Flug even considered trying to market them, though he couldn’t yet put an evil spin on the invention. 

With said goggles, he was able to see the room. The interior was lightly furnished, with a couch and rug in the center, though the door was off skew just enough for Flug to have seen Black Hat just past them. His boss was a bit difficult to look at, seeing as his outline almost seemed to be fuzzy against the darkness, like some of him was more shadow than not. He was still in the ruined outfit, though his overcoat had been shed and left somewhere. The inky black substance seemed to have crusted over, and was…  _ bubbling _ . 

A lone eye grew beside the injured area on Black Hat’s side, stared at him unnerving for a while, and popped with a horrible sound. 

Flug cleared his throat and tried to focus on the eldritch’s face, though everything aside from his bosses faintly glowing eye seemed to be melded with the shadows. “Are you okay?”

“I told you to leave me,” Came the biting reply. Flug hadn’t really expected any different, and while he knew Black Hat couldn’t have been all too weakened, wondered if the demon found it worth it to try putting energy into the unsaid threat. 

“But jefe…” Flug started, and watched as Black Hat decided that it was indeed worth it. A tentacle, adorned with spikes and dripping with ichor, sprouted from the depths of the corner, and lashed out, making Flug flinch back as it came horribly close to his face.

“I said,  **go away** !” The demon growled. His single eye glinted in the dark, and Flug shook and hesitated, waiting to see if the blow would come. 

It didn’t and the appendage fell limp and withdrew into the dark. 

“Can I help?” Flug asked after a long moment. Another eye grew, bloodshot and literally bright in the room, illuminating a bit of his boss's face. The earlier attack had apparently done more of a number on Black Hat than expected (perhaps due to whatever had been powering the laser, that the demon had pocketed...), and what sort of employee was Flug if he didn’t try to help? 

“... No.”

“You look sick,” Flug noted, and watched as Black Hat’s lips curled down at that. 

“It is not anything  _ you _ can fix,” Black Hat spat. “Unless you would like to leave me to my suffering, which would help greatly.”

“Who can fix it?” Flug asked curiously, glancing down to try and spot the overcoat with the power source somewhere on the floor, though he couldn’t locate it. 

“Nobody,” Black Hat said sullenly. 

“Okay,” Flug said, unsure as to whether or not the demon was just being difficult. For the moment, it was safer to err on the side of caution, rather than continuing to annoy him. “Is there anything that would make you more comfortable?”

Black Hat shifted and glared at him. He held himself tensely, and Flug flinched back as the wound on his torso bloomed another eye that popped and spat ichor towards him. 

“Shut the door,” his boss muttered after a long moment, and Flug quickly got up and shut it, closing himself into a room with an injured and disgruntled demon (though he hadn’t realized it was still open).

How fun. 

But Black Hat seemed less strained without the light protruding from the hall. He curled further back into the corner, allowing a lone tentacle to extend from his back and curl around his torso, pressing on the wound. He hissed as it made contact, and the skin began to sizzle, but continued to hold it. 

“Do you need something to spot the bleeding? Flug asked, recoiling at the noise, and Black Hat scoffed. 

“Prolonged exposure to this would burn through most anything.”

Flug stepped back and tried not to think about how close he had been to getting the substance on himself. He wondered if he should warn 505. 

“Surely I could invent something for next time you-”

“Are you suggesting that i’ll be  **injured** ?” Black Hat snapped, looking angrier than he had at the Doctor’s intrusion, and Flug flinched, intimidated even with the eldrtitch curled around himself in pain. 

“N-no, I just…” he took a breath. “It may help in any possible future scenario- not that I think anything will happen, but it might make it… easier to deal with… if it does?”

Black Hat scowled at him for a moment, and Flug tensed, uncertain as to whether or not he would be struck down for the suggestion. But his boss merely shook his head in refusal, stopping only to wince as his wound fizzled and popped, reminding Flug morbidly of a cereal he’d eaten when he was younger. 

The doctor made a mental note to try and track down a sample of Black Hat’s blood regardless.

He opened his mouth to ask once again if there was anything he could do (besides leave), before Demencia burst into the room, letting light flood inside. Black Hat hissed and pressed himself further into his crevice, skin writhing. “Flugsy! You found him, great-”

“Demencia,” Flug snapped, and got up to shove the door shut. “I think the light hur-... makes him heal slower. And noise is probably distracting. Do you think you can be quiet?”

Demencia glanced at Blackhat and quickly nodded, slapping her hands over her mouth. Flug watched her for a moment before nodding and stepping back. 

Black Hat had returned to his painful looking, not-quite fetal position, and flug found himself wondering something. “Would a cave help?”

“... what?”

“Something dark and small, like a makeshift cave or-” Flug squirmed further back as another wound popped. “-or um, a…”

“Yes,” Black Hat cut off. “Whatever.”

Flug nodded and turned to Demencia, giving her specific and hushed instructions. Then he stood in front of the door as she bolted out of the room, trying to block the worst of the light from the hall. 

“Anything else?” The scientist pressed. His boss was not usually very forthcoming with answers, and seemed even less willing when peppered with holes and burns. So when no answer was forthcoming, Flug took a seat nearby, and aimed to make notes about the injuries healing process, rather than flinching at the demons every change of position or shifting of skin, which was only liable to make him more upset. 

It was unnerving to see his boss so quiet, glaring instead of yelling, and on guard although he didn’t seem to view Flug as any sort of threat (seeing as Flug was still allowed into the room, even as Black Hat was curled up  _ protectively _ around the wound, like some sort of stray animal…). It was just as odd to watch the eldritch shift his skin out of some sort of discomfort, rather than from a need to intimidate or dismember somebody. 

Demencia returned sometime later with 505 and a variety of blankets and sheets. The hall light had been turned off sometime while they were gone, so no light disturbed their boss. 

Flug directed them into moving the couch and any chairs in the room towards the wall, in the opposite corner of the room than Black Hat. Demencia jumped up and down, grinning and shoving at the furniture. She was  _ trying _ to be quiet about it, so Flug didn’t fault her when the couch screeched across the floor. 

Black Hat however, rippled. His skin seemed to shake and twist like the surface of a pond when something was tossed into it, with the center of the splash at Black Hat’s chest. The doctor jumped up to help make moving things quieter. 

After a few minutes, with surprisingly little intervention or insults from Black Hat, they had everything in the corner, and covered with sheets and blankets, everything falling over each other to create a cave-like section of the room. 

Demencia turned to flug with bright eyes, and he nodded, allowing her to burrow herself in it for a moment while he supervised. 505 had stepped away as they were putting the last few blankets on, and Flug was surprised and properly terrified when he turned to see the bear plopped down at Black Hat’s side, poking at a second, newly revealed tentacle. The bear poked at it before looking to Black Hat and chittering a soft ‘ _ Aroo _ ?’ of question.

Dr. Flug started for the two of them, opening his mouth to call for 505, but stopped out of surprise when Black Hat stared back at the bear instead of attacking, looking unfocused and distracted. 

He was shaken out of his thoughts by Demencia returning to his side. 

“The cave works great,” she reported, only barely remembering to whisper. Her voice caught the eldriches attention, and he melted into the dark and reappeared at Flug’s side, standing straight through force of will and with the help of his cane, which was pressed firmly against the ground instead of being flaunted around like usual. 

“... this is idiotic,” Black Hat decided, after surveying the pillow fort. 

Flug shrugged, and Demencia grinned as the demon became one with the shadows again, and reappeared, crouched at the entrance of the pillow fort. 505 rejoined them as they watched him prod experimentally at the draped down blankets before he made his way inside, and didn’t return.

“Hey bud,” Flug murmured his greeting to the bear. “You think he’s alright?”

“Arooo.”

“Yeah…” he sighed in agreement, and Demencia giggled. The Doctor caught her arm as she stepped forward. 

“Let’s look at him.”

“Later,” Flug reassured, and tugged her out of the room. 

  
  


“Jefe…” Flug said upon entering the kitchen and finding Black Hat sitting with a newspaper turned to the obituary section, acting like nothing the previous day had happened. 

“What, Dcotor?” Black Hat asked, the words clipped. 

“You were pretty badly off yesterday,” he observed, and reeled back when Black Hat turned, tentacles extended. He looked  _ much _ more threatening than he had the day before. 

“ _ And _ , Flug?”

“... nothing,” he murmured, only just keeping from stuttering. “I just wanted… to know if you were feeling better.”

Flug squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself to be at the very least, smacked by his boss, but nothing came. 

“... fine, Doctor Flug,” Black Hat stated slowly, and Flug looked at him in surprise when the eldritch stood. “Come by my office later. I would like to go over what you observed of the invention at the convention, after you finish your current ray, of course.”

Flug brightened and nodded quickly.

He waited for his boss to leave the room before going down to check at the spare room Black Hat had holed away in, but found it perfectly empty, with even the furniture pushed back into place. With that out of the way, he returned to the peace and safety of his lab. 


End file.
